Grosse Pointe Farms pumping station
improvement could cost $4.8 million

An engineering firm has recommended $4.8 million in improvements for Grosse Pointe Farms' Kerby Road pumping station to prevent events like last year's flooding of basements and streets in low-lying areas.

Thomas Biehl, vice president of the engineering firm Hubbell, Roth & Clark, showed city officials how the pumping station's electrical system, mechanical components, water pumps and architecture could be repaired for a total of $4,840,700.  read more...

Grosse Pointe Farms city council gets
flood updates from engineers, resident

Months after the torrential rains that contributed to flooded basements in Grosse Pointe Farms, the investigation into what caused it, and how to prevent more flooding in the future, continues. read more...

Grosse Pointe Farms council hears
update on flooding, swears in winners

The mood was light at the Grosse Pointe Farms City Council meeting Monday evening (Nov. 14), even with a report on the September flooding incidents and the ongoing investigation into how hundreds of residents had their basements inundated by stormwater and sewage.

City Manager Shane Reeside told the council the city has sent out letters updating residents about the investigation of pumps 7 and 8 at the Kerby Pumping Station, the ones that failed during heavy rains Sept. 9, leading to the flooding. read more...

Autumn is perfect time to seek out
Grosse Pointe Farms' hidden lanes

I love a brisk walk, especially in the fall after work. I call them my "evening constitutional." The bright foliage of fall is mostly gone now, but when it's at its peak, the Grosse Pointes have some of the most breathtaking and colorful trees in Michigan. Each of the Pointes has its own idiosyncrasies that make it special, and in the Farms, there are a series of hard-to-find public thoroughfares that are not marked. Even Google hasn't found them all. read more...

This Grosse Pointe Farms hopeful
wants voters to write her in for council

Although she didn't know it at the time, Liz Vogel's write-in campaign for Grosse Pointe Farms City Council began on a Saturday morning last month when, running to an early appointment, she headed down to her basement to grab a notebook, stepped down from the bottom step, "and felt this squish."

This was Sept. 10. Like scores of others in the so-called Inland District of the Farms, her basement had flooded the previous night, when heavy rains combined with a pump failure at the Kerby Road pumping station caused storm and sewage water to invade basements throughout her neighborhood. It was the first time for Vogel's house, but for others, it was their second or third flood of the season. To describe the atmosphere at a special city council meeting held the following week as angry hardly does it justice. But when Vogel stepped to the microphone, she kept her tone level. read more...

Grosse Pointe Farms council hears from
flood victims, agrees to court merger

Two rounds of widespread basement flooding in a season is serious business in a city like Grosse Pointe Farms, and its city council planned a special meeting Sept. 15 at the War Memorial to address it. But some residents couldn’t wait that long, and several addressed the body during its Monday (Sept. 12) meeting. read more...

DTE diplomats hit Grosse Pointe Farms;
BluFin Sushi gets liquor license transfer

Joseph Cazeno, a Detroit Edison regional manager, must feel like a broken record after a jam-packed summer of answering questions and taking customers’ names and numbers.

After a stop last month in Grosse Pointe Woods, Cazeno appeared before a packed house in the Farms for Monday night's (Aug. 8) City Council meeting, accompanied by supervising engineer Ronald Gerken. The topic: a rash of summer power outages in that city. read more...

Grosse Pointe Farms council approves
structures at Country Club of Detroit

Unlike last month’s Grosse Pointe Farms City Council meeting, no torrential downpours or flooded basements dominated the discussion Monday (July 11).

Instead, representatives from the Country Club of Detroit presented a revised site plan for a new maintenance building and dormitory facility, continuing a discussion that began at the previous meeting.

The plan was approved pending council’s agreement this month on the landscape plans for three buildings and a pump house. read more...

Power still out for many, while some
make lemonade from thawed freezers

Hundreds of DTE customers in Grosse Pointe Park remain without power following Saturday night's severe thunderstorms that darkened more than 3,000 homes over the holiday weekend.  read more...

Residents complain about flooding
to Grosse Pointe Farms City Council

Some of the 288 Grosse Pointe Farms homeowners who experienced basement flooding during the record rainfall May 25 showed up at the Farms City Council meeting Monday (June 6) to spread the misery around. read more...